{"id":20312,"date":"2026-08-08T06:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imgist.ru\/nauka-obnaruzhila-chto-penie-pticz-imeet-skrytuyu-zakonomernost-s-chelovecheskim-yazykom\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T12:21:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:21:46","slug":"science-has-discovered-that-bird-song-has-hidden-patterns-in-human-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/nauka-obnaruzhila-chto-penie-pticz-imeet-skrytuyu-zakonomernost-s-chelovecheskim-yazykom\/","title":{"rendered":"Science has discovered that birdsong has hidden similarities with human language."},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Beach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birdsong exhibits patterns similar to human speech, according to a new study.<\/p>\n

Researchers have discovered a previously undiscovered structure in the songs of Bengalese finches that shares statistical patterns with human languages.<\/p>\n

Known for their complex, learned songs, these birds are said to organize their singing using the same mathematical formula as human speech.<\/p>\n

An international research team found that this trait has developed over time, making it easier for complex communication skills to be acquired and passed on from generation to generation.<\/p>\n

Their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, complement the team's previous discovery that humpback whales also use a similar systematic structure.<\/p>\n

Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with characteristics that distinguish it from all other forms of communication.<\/p>\n

\n

In this teaching situation, a father (right) shows his sons (left) how to sing. (Kazu Okanoya via SWNS)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the researchers say their latest findings suggest that some of the most fundamental building blocks of language may not be uniquely human at all, but rather a universal feature of learned communication.<\/p>\n

The study suggests that, like human language, the communication processes of songbirds and humpback whales are an evolutionary decision transmitted culturally, meaning they learn their communication systems from each other.<\/p>\n

A research team including scientists from the University of Edinburgh used methods inspired by how infants recognise words in speech and applied them to Bengalese finch song data collected in Japan.<\/p>\n

They found that finch songs contain statistically consistent sequences of notes\u2014the avian equivalent of "words"\u2014and these sequences follow the same patterns seen in human language, where some words are used very frequently and others less frequently, known as a Zipf distribution.<\/p>\n

The data were collected at different stages of the birds' development, and the patterns were already present during the earliest attempts at singing, suggesting that they arise naturally through learning.<\/p>\n

Researchers have found that young songbirds listen to the sounds around them to unconsciously learn the statistical patterns of those sounds and organize their songs\u2014much like how infants determine where one word ends and the next begins by recognizing which sounds often occur together.<\/p>\n

The statistical process is thought to facilitate language acquisition by helping infants recognize repeated "chunks" of speech within the continuous stream of sounds they hear every day.<\/p>\n

\n

(Photo courtesy of Monstera Production via Pexels)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The study's leaders, along with Ellen Garland of the University of St Andrews, recently discovered similar statistical patterns in humpback whale songs.<\/p>\n

The team of researchers says the new findings suggest that some of the fundamental building blocks that make language learnable may arise wherever communication learning and knowledge transmission across generations occur \u2013 even in the songs of small birds.<\/p>\n

Study co-leader Simon Kirby, from the University of Edinburgh, said: "We're used to thinking that language is unique in the natural world.".<\/p>\n

\u00ab"But by using our knowledge of how babies learn language, we were able to take a closer look at birdsong and discovered striking similarities between these species, separated by more than 300 million years of evolution.".<\/p>\n

\u00ab"Both humans and songbirds transmit their communication skills through culture, and this is what creates the common features of language and birdsong.".<\/p>\n

\u00ab"We humans are the only species with language, but we share the planet with several other species that are also developing their own ways of communicating culturally, and this may make us more similar to each other than we previously thought.".<\/p>\n

Scientists have long known that songbirds learn to sing by listening to adult birds, just as children learn language from the people around them.<\/p>\n

The research goes further, showing that the songs themselves are organized according to the same statistical principles that help infants acquire spoken language.<\/p>\n

\n

A funnel-finch on a branch. (Anil Kumar, Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Combined with recent discoveries made in studies of humpback whales, the researchers say their findings suggest that evolution may repeatedly arrive at the same solution whenever complex communication skills need to be learned and passed down through generations.<\/p>\n

Inbal Arnon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said: \u00abPeople often think that it is language that makes a person unique.\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\u00ab"Our findings suggest that some of the fundamental properties that define language may be present wherever communication skills are learned and transmitted across generations\u2014even in evolutionarily distant species such as humans, Bengal finches, and humpback whales.".<\/p>\n

\u00ab"This does not mean that human language is not unique in other respects, but it brings us closer to understanding what it shares and does not share with other communication systems in nature.".<\/p>\n

\u00ab"I'm really interested in seeing how ideas about how children learn language can provide new insights into the evolution of language and animal communication.".<\/p>\n

Kazuo Okanoya of Teikyo University in Japan added: "I've been studying the song of Bengalese finches for many years and thought I knew it pretty well.".<\/p>\n

\u00abIt was therefore a pleasant surprise for us to discover during this international collaboration another property shared by whale song and human language: frequently used syllable fragments tend to be shorter, while less frequently used ones tend to be longer, which is known as Zipf\u2019s law.\u00bb.<\/p>\n

The article "Science has discovered a hidden pattern in birdsong that is similar to human language" first appeared on the Talker website.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Beach: Bird song exhibits patterns similar to human speech, according to a new study. Researchers have discovered a previously undiscovered structure in the songs of Bengal finches that\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","hvn-theme-has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161809,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20312\/revisions\/161809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}